£8,230

100 backers

21 days

Project by

We are a youth employment charity working with 16-25 year olds based in South East London. We mainly employ young people who struggle to otherwise get into work. We firmly believe that if the next generation is not properly trained, equipped and supported into working life then we have not only let them down but society as a whole suffers.

For the last three years we’ve provided year long intensive joinery training and mentoring in our workshop located in Bermondsey, on the border with Peckham. The experience the young people gain is invaluable, enabling them to move on to further employment or training.

Our beautiful handmade furniture is now in hundreds of happy homes and a number of top London restaurants and cafes, including our very own:

We have just opened Lumberjack, a non-profit community cafe based in Camberwell. The aim of the cafe is to widen the scope of our work with young people and together serve the local community. The cafe has the same ethos of providing year-long training opportunities for young people in a real business environment, giving them vital skills for their future.

Over the last three years we’ve steadily scaled up our team and furniture offering until last year we reached the limit of the current workshop.

At the same time as realising we needed a larger workshop we were in the process of concepting the cafe. The last two months have been a blur of frenzied activity culminating in moving workshop and opening the cafe the very same week!

These large commitments will provide masses of scope and opportunity over the coming years however it naturally all comes at a cost. Whilst we’ve been effective custodians of our budgets there have been some curveballs.

We work in an area of real need and some people's need leads to drastic actions. On the first day of trading someone decided the cafe window would look better with a brick imprint. On the second day someone decided to break through another window to steal the young people's tips as well as a number of vital tools. Unfortunately the workshop has also been targeted and broken into numerous times.

The first broken window (after one day of trading) :

THE MONEY

We are looking for your help to secure young people's futures by protecting the cafe and workshop via the following:

installing shutters at the cafe = up to £5,000 (depending on spec)

installing CCTV and alarms at both premises = £6,000

updating the electrics at the workshop so that they conform to modern safety regulations = £7,500

Total: around £18,500

REWARDS

In return for your help we’re offering treats at the cafe as well as the opportunity to commission bespoke handmade furniture made to your exact specification.

Pledges between £5 and £35 will get you well and truly caffeined up and sugar fuelled at Lumberjack.

A £100 pledge will get you £125 of bespoke handmade furniture. Enough for a wall mounted wine rack made to measure out of historic victorian pine.

£200 pledge = £250 furniture. How about a bench to perch on in the kitchen?